Raiders Roll Past Jaguars in Hall of Fame Game, 27-11

Despite poor weather, the Las Vegas Raiders came to Canton, Ohio to play the Jacksonville Jaguars and walked out winners, again.

CANTON, Ohio—It’s only preseason, but for what it’s worth, the Josh McDaniels era as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders began with a victory.

The Silver and Black scored the first 20 points of the game in the first half and went on to a 27-11 trouncing of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night in the Hall of Fame Game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, on a week former Raiders Cliff Branch and Richard Seymour will be inducted into the Hall.

The game was delayed for more than half an hour by a thunderstorm that hit Canton during pre-game warmups, but when the game started the Raiders took command from the start.

“It’s pretty special, especially to have my father, who coached me, my mom, and the rest of my family here,” said McDaniels, who grew up within 10 minutes of the stadium in Canton and played high school football there for Canton McKinley High.

“It was a little sloppy, probably because the field was a little wet because of the rain, but I thought our guys played really hard.”

Said Doug Pederson, who was in his first game as head coach of the Jaguars: “Our defense kept us in the game. Our offense kept shooting itself in the foot with penalties and a lot of other mistakes. But it’s just the first game and it’s great to be out here.”

Starting quarterbacks Derek Carr of the Raiders and Trevor Lawrence of the Jaguars did not play, as expected, but the Raiders got solid performances from backups Jarrett Stidham and Nick Mullens in building their 20-0 lead.

The starters who did play for each team were on the bench to stay by the end of the first quarter.

Starting running back Josh Jacobs did play for the Raiders, rushing for 30 yards on five carries, including a 12-yarder, and catching two passes for 14 yards to help Las Vegas build a 6-0 lead on field goals of 32 and 45 yards by Daniel Carlson in the first quarter.

Ameer Abdullah was one of the backs who replaced Jacobs, and Abdullah gave the Raiders a 13-0 with an eight-yard touchdown run around the right end to cap a 50-yard scoring drive in five plays with 13:36 left in the half after Ryan Santoso barely missed a 60-yard field goal attempt wide right.

Stidham, who completed 8-of-15 passes for 95 yards without a touchdown or an interception, made it 20-0 when he scrambled 12 yards for a score on his only carry of the game to cap a 69-yard drive in 14 plays with 1:34 remaining in the first half.

After Elliott Fry of the Jaguars kicked a 46-yard field goal to make it 20-3 with 2:10 left in the third quarter, the Raiders held on downs and Mullens drove the Silver and Black 42 yards in eight plays to an eight-yard touchdown by Austin Walter to virtually wrap things up at 27-3 with 7:53 remaining in the game.

Rookie quarterback Chase Garbers, an undrafted free agent from the University of California in Berkeley, led that final Raiders scoring drive and completed 4-of-6 passes for 35 yards.

Mullens completed 8-of-11 passes for 72 yards, while Walter rushed for 49 yards on eight carriers, including a 22-yarder. Rookie Zamir White led the Raiders with 52 yards rushing on 11 carries and also caught three passes for 23 yards, including a 19-yarder.

Jacksonville scored its only touchdown on a five-yard pass from quarterback Kyle Sloter to Nathan Cottrell with 3:26 left in the game and Cottrell ran for a two-point conversion to complete the scoring.

The Raiders had 321 yards of total offense with a balanced attack, passing for 162 yards and rushing for 159 and three touchdowns while averaging 4.8 yards per carry. The Silver and Black actually had 203 gross yards passing, but perhaps the one negative was that they allowed five sacks, including two by former Raiders defensive end Arden Key.

Las Vegas held Jacksonville to 273 total yards, any of them after the game was decided in the final quarter, including 214 yards passing and only 59 yards rushing, with a 3.7-yard average per carry. The Raiders controlled the time of possession, 34:34 to 25:36.

Undrafted rookie linebackers Darien Butler and Luke Masterson led the Raiders with five tackles each, while cornerback Darius Phillips had four, and linebacker Divine Deablo, rookie cornerback Bryce Cosby and rookie safety Isaiah Pola-Mao each made three.

Defensive tackle Kendall Vickers had the Raiders’ only sack for a seven-yard loss, while safety Duron Harmon had the only turnover with a fumble recovery.

The Raiders will play the next of their four preseason games against the Minnesota Vikings at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas at 1:25 (PDT) on Sunday, Aug. 14.

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